Crafting this year’s shrunken budget was by all accounts a thankless and politically perilous task, but a cadre of lawmakers wants a bigger role in the annual balancing act.

The Joint Budget Committee receives criticism each year for its vice grip on the budget. Its six members draft the first legislative copy of the spending bill and largely get the last say on the final version.

But this summer, a bipartisan committee of lawmakers will brainstorm ideas for revamping Colorado’s 50-year-old system, including looking at expanding the size of the JBC and budgeting every two years.

Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, has for years advocated involving the entire General Assembly in the biggest job of the legislature.

“It starts with the JBC and ends with the JBC. Everything else becomes irrelevant,” he said, adding this year proved an exception to the rule.

The JBC proposed filling a $300 million budget hole by slashing higher education or tapping funds from a quasi-governmental agency that sells workers’ compensation insurance. Their colleagues helped form a patchwork of cuts, fees and transfers instead.

The JBC, which spends months scuttling parochial requests, questioned the motives of those calling for more input. Fellow lawmakers can sit in on hours-long deliberations on departmental budgets.

“We don’t get many questions or much attendance,” said JBC member Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder. “It’s like saying, ‘I really want to be a doctor, but why do I have to go to medical school?’ ”

Colorado’s budget has become increasingly complicated because of constitutional limitations — such as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and Amendment 23, which mandates annual increases in K-12 education spending.

And with only 20 percent of the state’s multibillion budget actually discretionary, changing where the cash flows is difficult, Pommer said.

The summer committee won’t address those issues but will consider ways to make the lengthy process less time-consuming and more inclusive.

One proposal, favored by House Speaker pro tem Kathleen Curry, would draft a budget every other year — in nonelection years — and look two years out.

“We could have a process that helps us think more long-term,” Curry said.

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”

Three fundraising giants decided to pull events from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, signaling a direct blowback to his business empire from his comments on Charlottesville’s racial unrest.